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Hackers shift their focus to new programs |
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Sunday, 27 November 2005 |
As people heed warnings to install the latest security updates for Microsoft Corp.s Windows operating systems and Internet Explorer browsers, researchers say hackers have been shifting their focus to applications that are harder to protect.
The SANS Institutes annual list of top Internet security threats includes a separate category for "cross-platform applications" for the first time.
Data-backup programs, media players and anti-virus software were added to the list, joining instant messaging and file-sharing applications before listed under Windows threats.
Most of these programs lack auto-updating mechanisms now available to automatically take care of the Microsoft threats, setting the state of security back five or six years, said Alan Paller, director of research as SANS, a security training and research organization.
Back to the pajamas: Less than a week after launching, a media Web site that combines new and traditional journalism is changing its name to avoid a trademark battle with an existing public radio show.
Open Source Media, until last week known as Pajamas Media, will now be called ... Pajamas Media.
OSM Media LLC returned to its old name after discovering that Public Radio International already distributes an hour-long radio show called Open Source, from a production company that goes by Open Source Media Inc.
The shows producers said they consulted lawyers and asked the new venture to stop using the name. Pajamas founders agreed to the request and suggested in an online posting that they were never fully comfortable with Open Source Media to begin with.
Gender plays role in official Web site: The election of a woman as Germanys chancellor presented government techies with an immediate challenge.
With gender-based spellings in German, the chancellors Web site could no longer be bundeskanzler.de. Angela Merkels official title is "Bundeskanzlerin," with the feminine ending "-in" - but bundeskanzlerin.de was already taken.
Now it appears the owner of the feminine version is willing to cede it.
On the bundeskanzlerin.de Web site was an announcement that its owner, Lars Heitmueller, had registered it in 1998 to "hold in trust" until a woman got the job and he could officially turn them over. Merkel took power Tuesday as Germanys first female chancellor.
For now, the official chancellor Web site, complete with photos of the new leader and details of her career, appears at the slightly unwieldy bundeskanz lerin.bundesregierung.de.
And former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeders bundeskanzler.de site automatically sends surfers to Merkels new site. |